From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 25 October 1999
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:22:41 -0500
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Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association
dedicated to transforming education through information technologies.
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TOP STORIES for October 25, 1999
Compaq Unveils Wireless LAN
IRS Looks to E-Mail as a Tool
Consumer Advocates See Impact on Fees and Privacy
PNC Gives $1 Million to PSU Tech School
ALSO
Helping the Hunt for Information
Textbooks Becoming a Part of History
Patently Silly
COMPAQ UNVEILS WIRELESS LAN
Compaq today will announce its WL Series, wireless LAN technology that will
allow employees to move Compaq computers around the office while still
connected to the company LAN and the Internet. The WL Series, slated for
release in December, includes $199 wireless LAN cards and $999 access
points. Each access point supports 11 Mbps transmissions for 300 feet in
every direction, and many points can be installed to allow workers to move
all over the building. "The time is now for wireless LANs," says Forrester
Research analyst Charles Rutstein. Wireless LANs have been held back by
high equipment expenses, low connection speeds, and incompatibility. While
the 802.11 standard established earlier this year resolves speed and
compatibility issues, Rutstein says the WL Series cost is still too high at
$999 per access point. However, Rutstein believes wireless LANs will be
widely used by workers who use laptops and move around the building
frequently to attend meetings in various conference rooms, for example. (PC
World Online 10/25/99)
IRS LOOKS TO E-MAIL AS A TOOL
Privacy advocates are up in arms over an IRS proposal that would transmit
tax information to mortgage companies, credit bureaus, and lenders via
e-mail. The IRS system would enable companies to resell taxpayers'
financial data to third parties, privacy advocates charge. However, IRS
assistant commissioner for electronic tax administration Robert E. Barr says
the new system would merely update a postal mail-based version of the system
that is already in service. Evan Hendricks of Privacy Times says the system
would tempt companies to resell tax data because the information would be
worth a lot of money. Still, IRS officials remain confident that the system
will not compromise personal privacy. Indeed, Barr says the system is 10
times more protective of privacy than the paper-based system. Peter Swire
of the Office of Management and Budget, who serves as the Clinton
administration's privacy expert, says the IRS system appears privacy worthy.
IRS will launch a one-year pilot of the program in California. (Washington
Post 10/23/99)
CONSUMER ADVOCATES SEE IMPACT ON FEES AND PRIVACY
The new financial services bill that was drawn up Friday should
significantly boost customer convenience with the offering of an array of
one-stop financial services, enabled by the sharing of customer data between
financial institutions. However, consumer advocates maintain that the bill
will drive up financial transaction fees and undermine the privacy of
customers' data. The bill does provide consumers with the option of
declining to participate with financial institutions' plans to share the
information with affiliates. Privacy advocates contend that the opt-out
system is not fool-proof because it permits banks to share the information
with third parties that have business contracts with the banks. States with
stronger privacy safeguards than those called for in the legislation would
implement their rules rather than those in the legislation. Consumer
advocates unsuccessfully fought to include an opt-in system, rather than an
opt-out system, in the legislation. (Wall Street Journal 10/25/99)
PNC GIVES $1 MILLION TO PSU TECH SCHOOL
Penn State University's new School of Information Sciences and Technology
got a boost from PNC Bank Wednesday, receiving a $1 million donation. The
program will provide future employers with graduates who understand IT
business and management perspectives as well as technology, said James
Thomas, dean of the new school of Information and Technology. Both PSU and
PNC officials stressed the need for corporate funding of this program and
others like it to ensure that Pennsylvania and its businesses do not fall
behind the technology curve. To that end, PSU is developing similar
relationships with other corporations, including IBM. The IT giant gave
$300,000 to help fund PSU's eBusiness Research Center. (Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette 10/21/99)
=======================================
HELPING THE HUNT FOR INFORMATION
The Mobile Data Access System (MDAS), currently being developed by
researchers at Pennsylvania State University, is designed to allow portable
wireless communication devices to surf the Internet. Ordinarily, such
small, less powerful machines would not be suitable for Web searching, but
there is a difference with the MDAS. The system uses a database, or
multiple databases, to organize and store data rather than using the keyword
method of data retrieval as does the comparatively unkempt World Wide Web.
"Think of it as a super search engine," says Ali Hurson, professor of
computer science and engineering at Penn State. The system, while
theoretically far faster and easier to search the Net via wireless
technology or traditional PC, is a long way from being a reality. Finding a
way to integrate different databases is an old problem for computer
scientists and a problem that is far from being solved. (Boston Globe
Online 10/20/99)
TEXTBOOKS BECOMING A PART OF HISTORY
The widespread availability of information from a variety of sources leaves
textbook use on the wane in Saskatchewan. William Gulka, who manages rural
schools in the Yorkton area, says sources such as the Internet and magazines
are often used as educational tools. As an alternative to traditional
texts, which are maligned for not allowing "room for expansion," the
Saskatchewan education department advocates research-based learning and
provides lists of relevant resources for each new curriculum. Some say that
research-based learning can be difficult and frustrating for students.
Executive director of the Saskatchewan Association of School Councils Joy
Bastness says "studies can be hampered by limited resources. It really
depends on the financial affluence of the school division." Gulka's
Yorktown division helped itself to added funding by forming a partnership
with IBM Canada, which now provides the division's schools with new
computers and regularly updated electronic encyclopedias. The schools are
also beginning to replace books with electronic texts. (Western Producer
10/14/99)
PATENTLY SILLY
In the recent past, Internet advocates worried that government censorship
and taxation would hamper the Web's growth. However, recent events have
shown that the true danger to a democratic Internet may be corporate battles
over intellectual property. While some of these claims are legitimate, many
are for functions that are and have been widely used on the Web since its
inception. Many examples abound of corporations attempting to patent ideas
or practices that have been around for years. Gregory Aharonian, publisher
of the Internet Patent News Service, says the fault lies with the Patent and
Trademark Office, which he claims gives out patents too freely. Some
groups, such as the World Wide Web Coalition, are fighting back against the
issuance of broad patents. One of the coalition's goals is to establish
open standards that will democratize the Web and make it run more smoothly.
The group has already had run-ins with Microsoft, Intermind, and other
companies over patented ideas and functions that it feels should be open
standards. (New Scientist 10/16/99)
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UPCOMING EDUCAUSE CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS:
EDUCAUSE '99
"Celebrating New Beginnings"
EDUCAUSE Annual Conference
October 26-29, 1999, Long Beach, California
http://www.educause.edu/conference/e99/
The EDUCAUSE '99 information technology conference promises to be one of
higher education's preeminent educational events. The conference will shape
and define the agenda for the transformation of education through
information technologies for the 21st century.
For more information on EDUCAUSE '99, please visit the conference
Web site at http://www.educause.edu/conference/e99/,
or contact us at conf@educause.edu or 303-449-4430.
THE LEARNING MARKETPLACE: NEW RESOURCES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
Presented by the Leadership Forum of the Center for Academic Transformation
(An EDUCAUSE Affiliate)
November 11, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/LMWkshp.html
SC99: HIGH PERFORMANCE NETWORKING AND COMPUTING CONFERENCE
November 13-19, 1999, Portland, Oregon
http://www.sc99.org/
For additional information on all EDUCAUSE conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/conference/conf.html
For information on other technology-related educational conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/ir/events.html
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OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS
EDUCOM REVIEW is a bimonthly print magazine on information technology and
education. U.S. subscriptions are $18 a year.
CAUSE/EFFECT is a quarterly practitioner's journal about managing and using
information resources on college and university campuses. U.S. subscriptions
are $52 a year.
For additional information on these and other EDUCAUSE publications see:
http://www.educause.edu/pub/pubs.html
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
News abstracts Copyright 1999, Information Inc., Bethesda, MD
Edupage Copyright 1999, EDUCAUSE
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EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming
education through information technologies